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Pantone released their annual Spring Color Fashion Report the highlight of which for me is always seeing the designers fashion illustrations that are paired with the chosen Pantone color collection. "For spring 2014 designers are pairing soft pastels with vivid brights to create a colorful equilibrium." I've chosen a few of my favorites to spotlight here but you can check out and even download the whole Pantone Report here.

First up is Saunder by Emily Saunders and Rachel Roy. I adore a dramatic fro so needless to say this Saunders sketch (shown above) was a must share. Rachel Roy is another. Her sketches are regular features here on Fabulous Doodles because they're such strong characters, with unique poses and always the ideal balance of being fully rendered readable sketches while maintaining a stylized and sketchy-artistic quality. Perfection.

Next up is not one but two sketches both by Tracey Reese (shown above.) These are a little different, more flat and the skin tone almost appears to be computer generated but they have an overall nice feel and movement. Its also different to see designers sketches in a pose like this, walking and talking, as opposed to a basic front view.

Both Lela Rose and BCBGMaxAzria have kept their sketches simplistic and minimal however lovely and understandable. The garments designs are clear and well rendered while they both only allude to a face and barely render the skin tones. Although slightly different styles, they are both successful fashion illustrations.

I always like when designers and illustrators mix techniques within their illustrations and this Sachin + Babi sketch is one of them. The vibrant skirt appears to be rendered with pastels and/or watercolors. The color is strong and saturated and its has deep shadows and highlights. Then the top, face and skin are delicately drawn in soft pencil or charcoal. Its a wonderful combination and makes for a beautiful sketch.

Last up are two playful sketches by Cynthia Steffe and Christian Siriano. Both sketches are soft partially rendered illustrations with clear clothing details and little emphasis to the face or figure. They're light, simple and lovely sketches that successfully represent the designers spring 2014 collections.

If you'd like to see more designer sketches from the Pantone for spring 2014 you can check out the Color Report in its entirety here. And for more designer illustrations from spring 2014 my NYFW Spring 2014 posts here and here.

Last week I live-sketched at my first holiday party of the season for fashion and lifestyle brand Hugo Boss. It was their annual employee holiday party and was held downtown at VIP Room in New York's Meatpacking District. The Hugo Boss employees made fabulous models to sketch for the night and were all so enthusiastic about receiving a custom illustration even Hugo Boss CEO Mark Brasher (shown above, left) sat with me for a custom sketch of his own.

It was quite a large party and a line quickly formed for custom fashion illustrations that lasted the whole night but it was wonderful to meet and sketch all the chic Hugo Boss employees and I was so happy to be a part of their company celebration.

For more information about my event-sketching or rates to sketch fashion illustrations at your corporate event or private party you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

Today I'm excited to share a recent project of custom fashion illustrations I was commissioned to sketch by Love Gold of sixteen top fashion bloggers. They had me sketch each blogger and gifted the illustrations to them at an intimate LA dinner party kicking off the holidays and the Love Gold #hintingseason campaign. Each guest received their custom sketch upon arriving at the dinner table where their sketches were essentially used as large place card settings. It was so great to get tweets and instagrams from the bloggers excitedly arriving at their seats to find my sketches!

For this project Love Gold sent me the guest list with links to the fashion blogs they represent and I was given cart blanche to choose posts from their blogs that I thought would make the best sketches. I also needed to incorporate some gold jewelry into each illustration, as the event was showcasing Love Gold. I picked photos with poses and outfits that I was excited to sketch and added in gold bangles, necklaces and/or earrings to compliment each sketch.

You can see more of the fashion blogger sketches I drew for Love Gold in this little video I shared on Instagram. And for rates on group custom illustrations to give at your next party or event you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

A little known fact about me, I absolutely love a gift guide. But even more so when the gift guide includes my sketches! This weekend I received some exciting press, my custom fashion illustrations are featured in Mini Magazine's Holiday Gift Guide 2013! Mini Mag asked Samantha Yanks, Editor-In-Chief of Hamptons Magazine and On-Air Style Expert for NBC, for her holiday gift picks and Samantha included my custom illustration of her adorable daughter Sadie right at the top of her list! She's also quoted as saying: "This is the best gift, truly." I'm so happy Samantha loves my illustrations and I want to thank her and Mini Magazine for sharing it with their "modern parent" readers!

You can flip through the digital edition of Mini Magazine's holiday issue for more of their gift guide (and page 90 to see my exciting feature!) And for all the sketches I made of Samantha's daughter here's the original Fabulous Doodles post from this summer. For more of my illustrations and details about my custom fashion illustration process visit my Etsy shop; Brooklit.

Its that time of year again, starting today Small Business Saturday through Cyber Monday you can get 20% off your entire purchase in both my fashion illustration Etsy shops: Brooklit and BrooklitBride by entering code "CYMBERMONDAY20" at checkout.

Stock up on fabulous doodle gifts from Brooklit and Brooklit Bride like notepads, cellphone covers and tote bags, holiday gift tags, cards and even signed fashion illustration prints. Happy shopping!

Recently I had the pleasure of working with Teen Vogue for their 2013 Fashion University weekend here in New York. A highlight of this Teen Vogue project was collaborating with Rachel Zoe's DreamDry team to create sketches for the DreamDry "Braid Bar" hair style menu.

I've selected a few of my favorite hair illustrations from the Teen Vogue Fashion U braid bar to spotlight, the first up (shown above) is my interpretation of DreamDry's soft and romantic waterfall braid, "The Juliette." To best illustrate the details of this braid I went with a profile pose. Next is the classic braid which can be styled perfectly neat or purposely messy and worn back or to the side. I opted to sketch a brunette side braid (with Catching Fire coming out soon and Katniss Everdeen on the mind!) it seemed the ideal choice.

Last but not least (shown below) of my favorite sketches from the DreamDry Teen Vogue style menu is the ultimate crown braid, "The Bianca." This style is classic bohemian chic perfected for day or night. For her I went with a classic brown eyed beauty with strong facial lines to compliment the symmetrical undo.

I always enjoy working beauty focused head shots and hair sketches but as a Rachel Zoe fan illustrating this style menu for DreamDry was a bit of a dream. (I even mentioned in a print interview years and years ago that a goal was to sketch for those I admire, and named RZ!) Be sure to check back soon for more fashion illustrations from my Teen Vogue Fashion U weekend!

Seeing all the fun costumes out and about today for Halloween has gotten be thinking about all the costume designers and costume illustrations that I love so much. If you've been following Fabulous Doodles a while now you probably know I started out wanting to be a costume designer and even dabbled in the field interning in various wardrobe departments in college followed by a stint as a wardrobe supervisor on an off Broadway show. Although these vintage designs are nothing like the productions I worked on but a girl can dream! I'm mean how utterly spectacular is this Bob Mackie design while working under fellow costume design legend Edith Head?! (shown above)

(Edith Head sketch of Elizabeth Taylor for "A Place in the Sun")

Speaking of, it should be noted that Edith Head is the only woman to have won 8 Academy Awards and a whopping 35 nominations spanning her career. She was Hollywood's leading costume designer, a favorite among leading ladies and even earned a star on the Walk of Fame. Head designed for countless classic movies including A Place in the Sun (shown above), Sunset Boulevard, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, The Ten Commandments, and Funny Face.

(Cecil Beaton design for "My Fair Lady")

This next vintage costume design illustration is by another Academy Award winner, Cecil Beaton. Beaton won the Oscar in Costume Design for this very production (shown above) My Fair Lady. He was also an acclaimed photographer and worked as a staff photographer for Vogue earlier on in his career.

(Edith Head for "Sweet Charity")

Last but not least is another wonderful Edith Head illustration. This design was for the 1969 film Sweet Charity directed by Bob Fosse. I love modern cut of this 60's mini dress and all the call outs for diamond, palliates and ankle jewels.

To see more of my favorite vintage costume design illustration you can pop on over to my costume design Pinterest board. Hope your having a fabulous Halloween!

Recently Neutrogena commissioned me to illustrate about twenty top beauty bloggers sketched with their favorite Neutrogena products. These custom fashion illustrations were a surprise gift sent to each of the beauty bloggers. Although I couldn't resist snapping a instagram when I finished I wasn't able to reveal the sketches and full details of the project until now, making sure all the women received their custom illustrations first.

It was really fun to work on these beauty blogger illustrations. I wanted to capture their over look or style in a "quickie" illustration, similar to the ones I do when event-sketching although here I didn't have people watching me and I wasn't on such a time crunch. The sketches weren't meant to be fully rendered and polished, the goal was simply to capture each girl and have her holding her favorite Neutrogena product. (Which the Neutrogena team researched and provided me with beforehand.) I'm really happy with how the sketches came out and hope the beauty bloggers liked them as well. Many of the ladies have already tweeted and instagramed me thank yous and photos with their sketches, which is always a treat to see!

If you'd like to commission a group of custom fashion illustrations to give to your clients, friends, bloggers or colleagues you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com for rates and information on group orders.

Its Bridal Fashion Week here in New York, so what better time to share some of my recent custom bridal fashion illustrations. This summers wedding season brought me so many beautiful bridal clients its hard to choose which to feature. This first custom bridal illustration (shown above) however is one of my favorites to come along in quite a while. This brides gown by Amsale is so simple but absolutely beautiful. I'm not normally a fan of a one-shoulder neckline, especially for bridal but something about this minimal dress is just so sophisticated and pretty. This illustration was a gift and I worked with the gift giver throughout the custom illustration process, shipped her the final artwork, and she then framed it and presented it to her friend, the bride, as her wedding gift.

The next illustration is another stunning gown that was wonderful to interpret into a fashion illustration. This custom bridal illustration was a bridal shower gift from Nicole's soon-to-be new family. At the shower they gave her a custom illustration gift certificate from my Brooklit Bride etsy shop and after the wedding Nicole reached out, emailed me wedding photos of her in her beautiful Rivini gown, and we worked together on her custom illustration, making sure it was the pose and look she wanted to display in her home. I love the fullness of the layered underskirt and the pretty accent of color with her orchid/lavender bow.

(Dana in Rivini)

Most of the custom bridal sketches this summer were wedding gifts but Dana (shown above) was actually the winner of my one and only custom illustration giveaway I hosted here on Fabulous Doodles a while back. Dana's wedding dress, also by Rivini, features a dropped waist and dramatic skirt made up of layers of organza which created a large rosette. This beautiful gown made for quite a unique bridal illustration with its unique bottom. The actual original illustration I sent to Dana had a lot more depth and shadows in the organza rose skirt, but my not-so-fabulous scanner didn't pick up on the shading and shadows. (Sadly bridal illustrations, being white on white tend to be the most challenging to scan accurately.)

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of live-sketching party guest fashion illustrations for Vogue magazine on the last night of New York Fashion Week. This event was in celebration of the new B. Brian Atwood handbag collection, and was held at Bloomingdales flagship NYC store. It was hosted by Helena Glazer, the impeccably dressed and always uber-chic fashion blogger behind Brooklyn Blonde (shown above with my sketch of her, which was the first of the evening.)

Since this event had such a large crowd, the fashion illustrations were given as a gift with purchase to anyone who bought a bag form the collection. Most of the part guests were women, including lots of Vogue staffers and the Brian Atwood team, but I did illustrate one man, Brian's handsome partner Dr. Jake Deutsch. He's also the only sketch of the night [understandably] not sporting a new purse!

It was great end to NY Fashion Week live sketching with Vogue and Brian Atwood at Bloomingdales! I hope you enjoy a few of my pictures and sketches from the night.

If your interested in rates for live-sketching at a corporate event or private party of your own, or have a question, you can email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

A few months ago I was asked to contribute fashion history illustrations for a wonderful new charitable coloring book that has just been released; The Asperkid's Not-Your-Average-Coloring-Book written by Jennifer Cook O'Toole. This unique coloring book covers topics that appeal to kids on the autism spectrum by encouraging them to try new things and showing spectrum kids the potential career value of their natural talents through artwork based on science, nature, history, math and myths.

It was great to work on these historical fashion sketches and solely focus on the designs through line drawing. I have to mention that while the 1960's mod look (at the top) is probably my favorite of the group due to the strong pose and bold accessories, the 1970's illustration was inspired by one of my favorite photo's from the 1970's of my grandma (which I also featured here on Fabulous Doodles a while back.) As for the other two line drawings, they gave me a great excuse to whip out my art and fashion history books and seek out some primary resources for inspiration.

I'm honored to be a part of this coloring book and encourage you to show your support for Asperkids and order a copy for the little artist in your life, whether or not they are on the spectrum. A portion of the proceeds will go towards supporting art programs for children on the autism spectrum. Although I'm only one of the contributing illustrators featured in the book, I've added The Asperkids's Not-Your-Average-Coloring-Book to my Amazon shop under titles I've illustrated, to make it easy to find and order. Happy coloring!

Over the weekend I added this lovely new bridal print to Brooklit Bride, my bridal fashion illustration print shop. I sketched her about a month ago, while procrastinating by sketching (and instagraming) instead of getting ready for a wedding I had to head to over in Brooklyn. Since drawing her she's been front and center on my shelves and I simply adore her. I've named this print "Martha" since she's inspired by a photo I pinned from Martha Stewart Weddings and the name just seemed to fit her personality as well we the charming vintage vibe of her J.Crew wedding gown.

I have another fun illustration project I worked on for Vogue to share, sketches of my lip prints for La Vie En Rouge, an event with Dior Beauty in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Rouge Dior. They sent me a handful of images of the new Rouge Dior collection and I illustrated lip marks for the team to use for lip-print analysis'. Since each lip print tells a story, Dior and Vogue were on hand to help determine what does your lip print say about you? The lip-print shown here is The Doll, withthin lips and light nude saturation (these would be my lips and my color of choice!) "Ever analytical, this woman is full of insights and is meticulously detailed. She is known for being organized, optimizing processes, and styling new looks." Okay, I'll take it!

I love sketching for beauty clients especially for such an iconic brand as Dior and this was certainly a unique out of the box project. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the event last week as it was at Saks down in Miami and I was at another Vogue event here in NY (which I'll post about on Fabulous Doodles soon) but I wanted to share the project with you. Also, check out the new Rouge Dior collection!

New York Fashion Week comes to an end today and closing it out is the designer behind one of my favorite inspirations sketches of this season, Ralph Lauren. His inspiration, along with these two from Joie and Honor were three of my favorite stylized sketches from spring 2014. These pieces are all quite artistic and stylized, and certainly not your typical "fashion illustration" but they are all such beautiful pieces of artwork and examples of illustration.

Joie's inspiration (shown above) is a stunning use of mixed media. They combined a beautiful illustration with actual fabric swatches of textured whites to the paper and make tiny gathers to create the clothing silhouette. They also used a craft paper base, which you know I'm a huge fan of these days and have been illustrating on and experimenting with myself. (Remember this project for Vogue and Bobbi Brown)

Next up is Ralph Lauren's simple yet powerful watercolor silhouette. Again, not your typical "fashion illustration" but such a wonderful minimal painting. Sometimes keeping it simple and showing restraint makes more of an impact, or as they say "less is more." I'm curious to see his collection this morning and see if this feeling is carried through to the collection.

Lastly is Honor. At first glance this sketch seems to be just a floral appliquéd veil. It's only once you take a closer look and see the figure beneath veil: the head, the long arm, the tiered black dress, that you see how impressive this stylized illustration truly is. I would love to have a piece like this framed in my apartment. It also makes me want to whip out the gouache and experiment with painting layers of whites over a pencil sketch.

These three designer illustrations from New York Fashion Week inspire me to take risks and experiment in my own artwork. Fashion illustration doesn't have to be traditional. Sometimes thinking outside the box can is where your creativity can truly flourish.

I'm excited to share that I'll be live illustrating for Vogue Magazine this fashion week and you're invited! We'll be celebrating the launch of the new B. Brian Atwood handbag collection. Vogue along with Helena Glazer of Brooklyn Blonde will be hosting the soirée and I'll be on hand live-sketching guests with their new B. Brian Atwood handbags, giving each customer an original custom fashion illustration as a unique and personal gift with purchase.

Where: Bloomingdale's 59th Street on the Balcony

1000 Third Avenue

New York City

When: Wednesday, September 11th, 6-8:00 PM

Enjoy stunning bags in an intoxicating mix of shapes, textures and skins along with cocktails, sweet treats, and fashion illustrations. Hope to see you there!

A few weeks ago I spent a day out in East Hampton teaching fashion illustration to the adorable campers of Stitched Fashion Camp. Stitched is the brainchild of Elle's creative director Joe Zee and Parsons adjunct professor Rob Yonkers. Its a week long summer fashion day camp that encompasses all the elements of the fashion industry and I had the honor of being asked to join as the industry expert on fashion illustration!

I prepared a handful of lessons including croquis (aka. fashion figures, its taken from French, the literal translation is "sketch." Its pronounced crow-key) development and various fabric and pattern rendering techniques, many of which were taken directly from archived Fabulous Doodles posts. I gave the fashion campers a lesson in fashion figures and poses and demonstrated rendering fabrics including sequins and beading, leopard, zebra, and denim. We also worked together one-on-one and I gave mini tutorials on drawing elements like faces, hair, hands and feet, just about anything the kids said they were struggling with drawing.

Throughout the day the kids tried the fabric rendering techniques I taught them and worked on illustrations of looks from their own mini collections. Many used the ditto's I handed out as a guideline, one of which is the photo-to-croquis example shown above (for more fashion figure info you can click over to my pose tutorial post.) And others created original fashion figures of their own from photo inspiration. Below is a picture of some their fabulous illustrations fresh from their sketchbooks.

Spending a day out in Hamptons and getting to work with these 12 kids ranging in age from about 10 to 15 was truly fantastic. The kids were so adorable, and so eager to learn and improve their illustrations. I have to admit I was a little nervous going in, as I had only ever tutored before one-on-one and this was my first real classroom setting but I have a feeling it won't be my last! It was such a wonderful and fulfilling experience, especially seeing the excitement in the kids eyes and the pride they exuded when they saw what they could achieve.

Time to drool over designer fashion illustrations fresh from the designers studios and hitting the runways. Unless you're living under a rock you probably know New York Fashion Week has kicked off this week and at the start of each fashion week WWD collects and publishes designer inspiration. Its something I, as a fashion illustrator and fashion illustration enthusiast always look forward to. This season it was a nice surprise to see that some designers opted to show more than one illustration from their spring collections. It's such a treat to see grouping of illustrations, how the collections take shape and the consistency of each designers illustrative style.

I absolutely love the first grouping of sketches from Erin Fetherston (shown above) inspired by her recent Barbados summer wedding. Her illustrations are all so feminine, soft and delicate while still conveying personality with their simple stylized top knots and a single dramatic eye. Rebecca Minkoff's sketches (below) are quite different but equally as striking. Her "strong Latina woman" inspired illustrations are certainly more detailed and the fabrics are thoroughly rendered yet not overdrawn.

Brandon Sun's sketches (below) are super simple pen and ink illustrations with no color, skin tone or design details yet you get the feel of his collection and its bold and modern Japanese samurai armor inspiration.

Last but not least is of one my longtime favorite designers, Oscar de la Renta. These illustrations are quite unique, they have classic Oscar features, faces and hair styles yet the garments are very stylized. Taking a close look, if I had to guess I'd say that the "dot calm" inspired clothing was rendered digitally from actual fabric scans. Their whimsical and fun styled illustrations for Oscar's always sophisticated, classic and timeless designs.

For more designer illustrations from the NYFW Spring 2014 collections you can click over to Women's Wear Daily, as well as checking back here with Fabulous Doodles in a few days as I plan to feature a few more of my favorites but with an interesting twist.

Recently I had the pleasure of live sketching fashion illustrations at another event for Vogue Magazine. Vogue joined Lucky Brand in celebrating the launch of their made in America capsule collection. It was a great little cocktail party where guests got to mingle with Vogue staffers, shop the new Lucky Brand store in New York's Time Warner Center and receive a custom fashion illustration of themselves drawn on the spot by yours truly as a unique gift with purchase.

Its always fun to sit down with guests and chat as I illustrate them but at this event one of the guests shared with me that the only reason she came to the party was to get sketched by me! She's a fashion illustration fan and was eager to see the process of how my fashion illustrations takes shape. The Vogue summer interns were also attendees/fashion illustration models (two of the girls are shown in this post in their little black dresses.) Since this was their very last Vogue event of the summer before heading back to college, they each got a sketch of themselves as a nice little "end of internship keepsake." All in all in was another great of live sketching for Vogue.

For questions about my live-sketching or if you'd like rates for a corporate event or private party of your own, email me at FabulousDoodles@gmail.com.

I'm happy to share this fun illustration inspired by Lauren Miller and Ari Graynor in the movie For A Good Time Call.... I drew this sketch of Lauren and Ari months ago, shortly after their film premiered but it wasnt until just a few weeks ago while visiting Lauren (who also happens to be my cousin) in LA that I finally framed it and gave it to her as a birthday present. Here it is sitting in her home along with the actual prop phone from the film and a copy of the dvd. This fabulous independent film is a must see for every girls-girl who's ever had a best friend, and experienced the roller coaster of emotion that is a female friendship. (Its also now on demand so you should check it out!)

I simply love this movie. Not that I'm bias or anything but my talented cousin not only stars in For A Good Time Call... but she also co-wrote the script, my other cousin Dan produced it, and last but not least I happen to make my big screen debut! Well, my coral J.Crew scarf did really, as I was an extra in one tiny scene but unless I'm sitting beside you to elbow you for the split second my coral scarf appears in the distance, sadly theres no chance of you spotting me.

If you'd like your own fashion illustration of print of the fabulous girls of For A Good Time Call... you can click on over to my Etsy shop because I've just added Lauren and Ari as a 8"x10" print. (The aqua and gold frame in the top photo, since people always tend to ask, is from Z Gallerie.)